Optometrists granted surgical privileges in Oklahoma

WASHINGTON — Optometrists in Oklahoma now have the right to perform surgery with a scalpel, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The regulation granting optometrists surgical benefits, which was approved by the Oklahoma Board of Examiners in Optometry last month, received the governor’s signature on Oct. 29, according to Oklahoma's NewsChannel 8.

Oklahoma is now “the only state in the nation that allows health practitioners who are not medical or osteopathic doctors to perform delicate scalpel eye surgery,” the AAO said in a press release.

“The implementation of this regulation presents serious patient safety concerns and knocks Oklahoma to the bottom rung of the ladder with regards to patient quality of surgical care,” said H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr., MD, the executive vice president of the AAO, in the press release.

Earlier this year the Oklahoma attorney general determined that optometrists did not have the legal authority to perform surgery. Optometrists then asked the state legislature to approve a law adding the word “surgery” to the regulation defining optometric scope of practice, according to information posted on the Web site of the Oklahoma Association of Optometric Physicians. The optometry board then promulgated the regulation defining what surgical procedures can be performed by optometrists, and Gov. Brad Henry signed the regulation last week.

“This regulation will allow non-surgeons to perform more than 100 types of surgeries, to use a scalpel to cut the eyelid to remove skin cancer lesions, to cut the eye surface to remove cancer lesions, to stick a needle in the center of the eyeball to inject medication and to inject Botox around the eye,” said Ann Warn, MD, president of the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology.

The AAO stated that it would continue to fight implementation of the rule.